Hard rock owned the 80s. From Back In Black onwards, the classic albums swung in one after the next, as unstoppable as wrecking balls, breaking records and birthing legends. But by the end of the decade the priorities had shifted. Rock had become bloated, garish and frivolous; a pot-bellied, slurring shadow, and an irresistible target for those behind the raw, primal, urgent music being fused in the sweaty basements of Seattle.
In retrospect, the situation was not quite that black-and-white. Some ‘hair’ bands were still making great records in 1991, while others were already starting to change their sound. Many of the grunge musicians had been wearing hairspray five years before, and their talisman, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, was a fan of Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Metallica.
